Tampa Bay acquires Simon Gagne

The Tampa Bay Lightning have acquired Simon Gagne from the Philadelphia Flyers.

Frank Seravalli of the Philadelphia Daily News (via twitter) confirms that the Flyers will receive Matt Walker and 4th round pick for Gagne. Seravalli also thinks Walker will be sent to the AHL to avoid the cap hit.

Walker is a $1.7 million cap hit for the next 3 years according to CapGeek.com. Gagne is a $5.25 million cap hit for this season, a UFA afterwards.

Simon Gagne was drafted 22nd overall in 1998. In 664 career games, Gagne has scored 259 goals, 265 assists for a total of 524 points.

Matt Walker was drafted in the 3rd round by the Blues in 1998. He spent parts of 5 seasons with the Blues, before playing 1 season in Chicago, before moving on to Tampa last year. In 306 games, he’s scored 4 goals and added 26 assists to go along with 444 PIMs.

Initial thoughts were that a goalie could be include, but that was not the case. NHLSourcesSay, say it could be Mike Smith and prospects. Erik Erlendsson is saying Smith, or any other goaltenders, are not involved.